Commercial Loans Blog

In commercial mortgage finance, it is customary to name a loan after the name of the income property. For example, if the name on the monument in front of the apartment building is the "Greenwood Garden Estates", then the loan would be called the Greenwood Garden Estates deal, as opposed to the Smith loan, assuming the property was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

It is very important that you name your commercial loan with care. For example, my own private money commercial mortgage company, Blackburne & Sons, just closed a commercial loan on Los Coches Road in Lakeside, California.

We unwisely called the deal, the Los Coches Commercial Building. Now in Spanish, Los Coches simply means The Cars; but to me, an Anglo, Los Coches sounds too much like "The Roaches". The name conjures up images in my head of the filthy creatures you might step on at night in the kitchen. Yuck. Now if we had named the loan, the Lakeside Commercial Building, that name conjures up in my mind images of cool, clear water, lush green vegetation, and pretty butterflies.

Years ago I was trying to place an apartment loan in East Palo Alto with a savings and loan association. Now in the mid-1980's East Palo Alto was the murder capital of the world, with drive-by killings a nightly occurance. Therefore, even though the name painted on the building was the East Palo Alto Apartments, I called the deal the Cypress Street Apartments. The deal closed.

This subject reminds me of a story. I was once in San Jose inspecting an apartment building. As I stood in front of the apartment building, I stepped back to get a wider view. As I did so, I felt my right heel step in mud. As I looked down at my shoe, to my utter horror, I realized that it wasn't mud into which I had stepped. It was a pool of congealed blood! There had been a knife fight the night before, and bloody handprints marked where the dying victim had slid down a nearby car. Eeeuuuu, yuck!

So give a dog a good name. Take great care when naming your commercial loans.